“He should stay in the grave”: Cultural patterns in the interpretation of near-death experiences in African traditional religions.
The Journal of near-death studies January 1, 2017 Sushan, Gregory
Historical accounts of near-death experiences are rare in indigenous African societies, according to a survey of ethnographic, explorer, and missionary literature. Correspondingly, mythological narratives of journeys to afterlife realms are scarce, and there is little concern with afterlife speculation. Instead, many African peoples focused on ancestral spirits, spirit possession, sorcery, and precipitous burial practices that limited NDE occurrences. NDEs were sometimes viewed as aberrational, making individuals reluctant to report them. In such cultural contexts, NDEs could not have significantly shaped afterlife beliefs.